Wherever baseball has taken Colin Holderman, his support system of friends, family and loved ones haven’t only been there for him when he’s needed it.

They have been the reason behind his journey.

And when the game he loves brought Holderman, a 2014 Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School graduate, to Wrigley Field when his former New York Mets took on the Chicago Cubs last weekend, almost all of that support system was there to watch the rookie reliever pitch in the same Friendly Confines where some of his most fond childhood memories were made as a young Cubs fan (Editor's Note: Holderman was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night).

“It’s emotional. To me, he’s still my little boy who would say, ‘Let’s play ball, Momma,’” Holderman’s mother, Angie, said of watching her oldest son and second-oldest child live his dreams. “... This here, Wrigley, is what Colin has dreamed of since he was little, so this is emotional.”

Holderman had the chance to pitch in front of his hometown crowd in the nightcap of last Saturday’s doubleheader, when he threw 1 2/3 perfect innings of relief in a 4-3 Mets win in 10 innings.

And after a touch-and-go past handful of years between injury and the COVID-19 pandemic, Holderman couldn’t have imagined making that homecoming appearance without his support in the stands.

“We were really tight before all this happened, since we were little,” Colin said. “My family is great and raised us right, and it definitely paid off.

“There have been a lot of times where I needed them and they needed me, and it’s amazing because at the end of the day, when you come home, this doesn’t matter,” he added. “Baseball doesn’t matter; it’s about our family and the love that we have for each other that matters at the end of the day.”

<strong>Tight-knit bunch</strong>

It wasn’t much longer after Colin realized that his older sister, Taylor, was different than most children her age, that he also realized he wanted to be a pro ballplayer.

Angie still remembers when he began to put those two thoughts together.

“When Colin was 4, he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t worry, Momma. I’m going to be a Major League player one day and take care of Tay,’” Angie recalled. “That’s the same guy [who is] here now, just a good guy.”

Taylor, the oldest Holderman child, was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome as a young child, a genetic disorder that can lead to conditions such as delayed development and intellectual disability.

Keith agreed with his wife that doing whatever he can to make Taylor’s life a better one is something that has helped push him for decades.

“He cares for his sister, he takes care of his sister, and that’s Colin to a tee,” Keith said. “He’s all about family.”

That family also includes his younger twin siblings, 23-year-old brother Casey and sister Cassidy; his wife, also named Casey — the family differentiates from the two with the distinctions Casey boy and Casey girl — and grandparents Ron and Caren Holderman and Larry and Joyce Barbee, all of whom proudly follow the Mets closer than they’ve ever followed a sports team.

<strong>Familial foundation</strong>

Baseball always has been the family’s biggest bond, seen in the names of their family dogs through the years, all baseball-related, including Shea, named after the Mets’ former Shea Stadium, a dog now fondly looked back on as a sign of what was to come.

As Colin began his path to the Majors after the Mets selected him in the ninth round of the 2016 MLB Draft, that support from within is what got him through a six-year journey that was just as difficult as it was enjoyable.

He spent the remainder of the 2016 season after the draft with the Mets’ rookie league affiliate, the Kingsport (Tenn.) Mets, going 1-0 with a 3.86 earned run average in 13 relief appearances. He spent 2017 split between the Mets’ Gulf Coast League team and Class A Brooklyn and Columbia, primarily as a starting pitcher, making 10 appearances (nine starts) and finishing the year with a 2-3 record and 5.11 ERA amongst the three teams.

As Holderman was preparing for his 2018 campaign, he tore his ulnar collateral ligament and had Tommy John surgery in March of that year, beginning his grind to get back to full strength, both mentally and physically.

He returned to form in 2019, when he tossed 66 2/3 innings across 15 starts, compiling a 4-2 record and 3.53 ERA between Brooklyn, Columbia and Advanced Class A affiliate St. Lucie, before his career again went on pause as the Minor League season in 2020 was wiped out because of COVID-19.

And when Holderman returned to the mound in 2021, he again suffered an injury in his throwing arm that cost him more than two months of the season. But he returned to form by the end of July and closed out the season as a reliever for Class AA Binghamton, where he went 0-2 with a 3.26 ERA in 11 appearances, all but two of them out of the bullpen.

During that turbulent time through the minors, the ones who stuck by him the most are the ones he shares a last name with.

“There were definitely a lot of lows during that time,” Colin said. “It took me a while to come back from Tommy John. I had another injury in my shoulder, and there were a lot of times where I was like, ‘Is it really worth it?’

“But they always had my back and made it feel like it was destined to be.”

That support included his brother-turned-personal catcher during the pandemic, Casey “boy,” who would catch Colin’s bullpen sessions and also record and evaluate his workouts on video.

“It definitely helped our relationship a lot,” Casey “boy” said. “Every day I was catching him or he would go throw live and I would go take video, we would watch it and look at his mechanics and fix it for the next time.”

And while Casey “boy” didn’t want to get his hopes too high of his brother reaching the majors until recently — reminded that only about 20,000 people ever have played in an MLB game — Cassidy, who now proclaims herself as one of the biggest Mets fans, remembers the old days when she first believed her big brother would make it.

“Growing up I felt like it was always baseball,” Cassidy said. “I remember being about 5 years old, Colin being 9, him trying to hit left-handed for the first time with a tennis ball and here came a line drive straight to the forehead.

“I remember growing up at the little league field, and those were some of the best days, hanging out with families and siblings of players,” she added. “It’s been cool to watch him go from to T-ball, to little league, PONY league, high school and college and now living out his dream.”

<strong>The story of Casey 'Girl'</strong>

During his 2016 season at Heartland Community College, where he earned the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Player of the Year award, Colin’s fan club at games featured a studious blonde who often could be found at the ballgame with her nursing books in tow.

That woman was Casey Spence, now known by her in-laws as Casey “girl” Holderman, whom Colin married in 2020.

Casey “girl” and her now-husband had to endure more than most young lovers after Colin was drafted, as she used her nursing degree to support the couple as Colin made lowly Minor League wages that weren’t enough to support them alone.

She eventually took a job in Austin, Texas, initially working in labor and delivery before transitioning to her current role as a fertility specialist.

While the circumstances surrounding them have changed now that Colin is a Major-Leaguer, the two still have to oftentimes show their love from states away during the season.

“It’s just weird to see every step of the way up how things are different; when he started [in the minor leagues] he was living in the Red Roof Inn in Kingsford, Tenn.,” Casey “girl” said. “I always expected it to be nice like this, but that isn’t always the case in the Minor Leagues. … It’s crazy how different it is now but how it’s still the same.”

Casey “girl” has been able to watch her husband pitch in three cities — New York, when he made his debut; Cincinnati during Fourth of July; and last weekend at Wrigley. In all three cities, she was joined by the rest of the Holderman family, creating the group of people Colin hopes to make both the happiest and most secure with his pitching prowess.

“Being a Minor-Leaguer financially is sometimes tough, and they were always there,” Colin said of his wife and family. “Hopefully, I can make enough money here to help them out in the future because they definitely deserve it and have definitely helped me more than anything.”

<strong>Outside of the family</strong>

In addition to Casey “girl” and his family, the latest Mets rookie standout also keeps in frequent contact with old friends such as Cameron Powell and Nathan Giacchino, who now resides in Tennessee. Although Giacchino wasn’t able to make it to Chicago last weekend, he did manage to catch his best bud when the Mets visited National League East rivals, and the defending World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves, in the Mets’ series before they headed to the Windy City last week, tossing 1 1/3 hitless innings in a 4-1 Braves win.

“It was crazy just being in a hostile environment; the Braves were on a run there, and they brought him in mid-inning,” Giacchino said. “I was just staring at him as he walked in, and it’s crazy watching your best friend out there and feeling all of those emotions.”

Powell and several other friends and former teammates made the trip to Wrigley last weekend, as did former coaches who were instrumental in his development, including his BBCHS basketball coach, Alex Renchen, and his former little league coach, Jeff Schimmelpfennig, a longtime family friend.

“Everything boils down to the basics,” Keith said. “He had a great coach growing up with coach Schimmelpfennig, and for me it’s just like Colin is back in Little League, just playing and doing awesome.

“Over the winter, I saw a significant uptick in just his pitching ability, but for me coming back to watch him, it’s the same as Little League. … He’s just really dialed in on being a professional baseball player.”

Keith’s son’s focus on being, and succeeding, as a pro have paid off, as the 26-year-old rookie entered the All-Star break with a 4-0 record and 2.04 ERA in 17 2/3 innings during 15 appearances. He’s fanned 18 batters and has a walks- and hits-per-innings-pitched of 1.019, giving him a wins above replacement, a metric used to calculate a player’s value over an “average” player, at 0.5 wins.

But for the Holderman family, they aren’t following around a rookie reliever on his journey from being on a first-half World Series contender to a midseason trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he will presumably see opportunities to work in a closer role. They’re not even just following around a loved one who ended up with a talent for missing major league bats.

They’re following around a son, brother, grandson, husband and friend who is an even better person than he is a ballplayer.

“We’re so proud of him,” Angie said. “Someone asked us what he was like as a kid, and he was always a really good kid, always humble.

“He’s the same guy right now that he’s always been, which is a good person.”